New Draw, New Balls and New Horses for World Cup

The UK’s World Cup Committee has announced a new World Cup draw and that Hull polocrosse balls will be the official World Cup ball, while the UKPA’s World Cup Horse fund has announced its three latest purchases in what is turning out to be a busy week for the UK.

The changing of the draw has seen the pool structure for the World Cup change and also has seen a change in the order of play so that the UK will now play the opening match, rather than the reigning champions Australia as was previously announced. The World Cup Committee said the reason for the change in the World Cup pools was so that the draw more closely mirrored what had been done in the previous two World Cups. The decision to change was made after extensive discussion with the World Cup countries and extensive studying of the previous World Cup draw and draw structures in general. In a statement the World Cup committee said that both the original draw structure and the new one were valid ways to do a draw but ultimately it decided that a draw structure that was closer to the ones used in 2003 and 2007 was more suitable for the 2011 World Cup.

The change has seen the two pools split by their seedings as seeds 1,4,5 and 8 in one pool and seeds 2,3,6 and 7 in the second pool, rather than the original draw which saw an odd/ even split of 1,3,5 and 7 in one pool and 2,4,6 and 8 in the other. The last world Cup had a 1,4,5 and 7 in one pool and 2,3,6 and 8 in the other. Therefore the new pools looks as follows:

In the new opening match the UK will take on the USA, which will then be followed by Australia taking on Zambia on Friday the 8th of July.

The World Cup Committee has also announced that Hull Polocrosse Balls will be the ball used at the World Cup. Hull balls, manufactured by Rosemount Polocrosse Equipment, is one of only two match quality balls in the world, along with, perhaps, the better known Milner polocrosse ball. However, 2011 will see the Hull ball being used after Rosemount Polocrosse Equipment agreed a sponsorship deal with the World Cup to provide all the playing balls.

And finally, the UKPA World Cup Horse fund today announced that it has purchased three further horses to play in the World Cup in July and then to be sold afterwards, hopefully making a profit which will be returned to the investors in the Horse fund. The three new horses all come from a polo background and they are Rosita, a 15.1hh, 12 year old roan mare, Common Times, a 15hh, 6 year old gelding and Utah is a 15.1hh, 11 year old chestnut mare. The UKPA Horse Fund committee says it thinks in these three horses it has horses which will play very well in July and also be able to be sold at a profit afterwards. They will now be placed with riders who will work on them and play them till July to get them into their top condition.

The Horse Fund was set up to ensure that the World Cup in July had top quality playing horses in it and also to deliver a return to people investing money in it. The UKPA said that so far over ten thousand pounds had been invested and it was now actively looking for more investment in order to purchase further horses.